The Fall of Ron Wealsey
by Charlemagne
Summary: Ron Wealsey faces his inner demons after Voldemort kills his father, and finds himself lacking


The Fall of Ronald Wealsey  
  
Author: Charlemagne  
Part: Complete  
Rated: PG-13  
Genre: Drama  
Content: Fantasy Violence, Angst  
  
Disclaimer: Ronald Wealsey does not belong to me and I don't think Ms. Rowling would precisely approve of what I've done to the old boy. This story is tied to the story arc "After Hogwarts" being created currently at the web site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarrypotterAH and to a lesser extent my story "Harry Potter and the Collegium of New Avalon" though Ron remains vastly different there.  
  
Malfoy Castle  
Moldavia  
July 4th 2000 A.D.  
  
Narcissa Malfoy watched out the battlements of the Malfoy ancestoral home, the mob of villagers battling the goblins that served the family loyally even as they were being overwhelmed as their manipulators, the black clad wizards of Wotan's eye looked on. Behind her Draco was staring downward as he breathed in shallowly, a look on his face of resignation.  
  
"They won't be able to get through my son. The enchantments your forefathers wove to protect this place are far too strong." She assured him as Draco shook his head with a smirk, gone the sarcastic sense of horrific humor that had accompanied him until Voldermort's defeat and his father's death just a year before.  
  
"No, they're already through." He sighed.  
  
***  
  
The leader of Wotan's Eye was a figure who was terrifying to behold, six feet in height he seemed to project a figure much larger as he walked forward through the Muggle peasants which like many other small groups had been enslaved for the pleasure of wizards who wanted the knowledge of controlling the power of life and death.  
  
It disgusted him.  
  
The wizard turned to his followers as they stepped aside, each of them recruited from the downtrodden of Beauxbaton, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts. Those who had lost those they loved to the perils of Dark Wizardry and the racism that the Death Eater's had fostered…and now rightly deserved vengeance. Though they had seen his face their master's horned skull mask made from the skull of Lucius Malfoy and dotted with the bones of dragons slain in Voldemort's service.  
  
"Lord Tempest, the goblins have been routed but the doorway to the castle remains secure. We can't get past the spells keeping it locked." Brutus Bones said, his parents murdered many years ago by the Dark Lord.  
  
"It is no barrier to me Brutus." The one who was known as Tempest said, for what was he but a storm that would sweep the world clean of Dark magic, even If he had to use it? Lifting up the black obsidian wand he had made from the mane of a Nightmare he pointed it at the heavy ten-ton doors to Malfoy castle and spoke his hex. "Abra Destructus!"  
  
The doors exploded into splinters as the invisible force Lord Tempest released upon them shattered it like lightning on a dry try. It was not always like this, he was not always so full of hate. The new Dark Lord had once had friends and loved ones. That was a long time ago however. When the man who was barely a man had still been known as Ron Wealsey.  
  
***  
  
England  
The Wealsey residence  
December 19th, 1998 A.D  
  
The House had been gutted by magical fire as Ron jumped off Harry's broom. He had stolen it when he had heard Peter Pettigrew's dying words of redemption before being murdered at the hands of Lucius Malfoy, that slimy snake turning into a raven and getting away after his plan to kill Harry had failed. The words that the attack on Hogwarts had just been the beginning and that vengeance if it couldn't be taken on Harry would be taken on Harry Potter's friends, and their families.  
  
"DAD!" Ron screamed looking at his house as he thought of Percy, George, Ginny, everyone had to have been away from the house but dad….his dad might not have been home though. Maybe they just burned his house out of spite. They were things, they could be replaced Ron thought tears beginning to flow down his cheeks and freezing in the snowy winter weather around his face.  
  
"Unfortunately dearest Ron your patriarch is quite dead. Your father was home and actually had the nerve to challenge me. Then again he probably realized that running would have just made the inevitable oh so much longer." The sinister gaping voice spoke as he turned to see the lipless hideous deformed beast that was the master of the Death Eaters. He-who-must-not-be-named.  
  
"PYROS!" Ron screamed pulling up his wand and shouting the spell for conjuring fire as a hex towards the dark figure before him.  
  
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Voldemort raised his own wand with his right hand and held up his left hand, blocking the flames as one might tell a person not to come closer. Ron's wand sailed out of his hands as He-who-must-not-be-named walked forward and simply backhanded Ron as the new adult launched his fingers at his throat. Ron sailed backwards face first into the snow, the strength of the Dark Lord incredible.  
  
"Temper Temper Mister Wealsey. It appears you have learned very little control in your time at Hogwarts…pity. CRUCIO!"  
  
The Cruciatus Curse struck Ron full as the pain unimaginable funneled through his body as the grief magnified it ten times over. He reached for his wand through crawling in agony, sheer hatred driving him to want to hurt Voldemort before he was killed.  
  
"Impressive fortitude. Let us see how you do however without your legs." The Dark Lord lifted his wand and muttered some word Ron couldn't hear in the pain as both his leg's bones broke.  
  
"I WILL KILL YOU!" Ron screamed grabbing his wand and spitting forth a torrent of vile words as his wand exploded in his hands to Voldemort's causal wave, leaving him bloody and in the snow.  
  
"Ah yes truer words were never spoken Mister Wealsey. I have done enough to hurt Harry Potter this day…and rest assured of course I will kill the rest of your family but I will save you for last before I kill Harry. I want him to see you like I see you now, broken and filled utterly with loathing. You after all did decide to tempt my wrath by getting involved, your father's death is your fault truly." You-Know-who smiled a sickly smile and stepped over Ron's battered form as he murmured weakly.  
  
"Kill you….kill you."  
  
***  
  
Lord Tempest causally walked into the manner with his nightmare wand and transformed goblins and servants and guests into bloody messes resembling gelatin, burning piles of ashes, and others into hideous monsters he commanded to slaughter their former comrades as his followers followed behind trying futilely to keep up with their own spells the level of carnage he was inflicting upon the Death Eater home.  
  
"STOP!" Tempest heard the words come from the top of the stairs and he raised a hand causing the horde of warriors to cease movement instantly as if by a spell.  
  
Draco Malfoy, now a man of nineteen (or was it twenty?) stepped down the stone stairs with his mother not far behind him. The year of fear and horror he had suffered fleeing the destruction of Malfoy manor and the backlash that was the Daily Prophet's way of describing Wotan's Eye's activities had reduced the man's handsome features to something haggard and worried far beyond his years. His once gloriously beautiful dress robes that Ron Wealsey had been envious of were wrinkled and dust worn from the castle drafts and fleeing.  
  
"Ah the Black Prince of Voldemort arrives. I've been waiting for you Draco. You have no idea how annoying it's been, having to go to these lengths to kill you. I have much greater business to attend to than presiding over your death you know." Lord Tempest smiled beneath his skull mask as he adopted the sarcastic wit that he had once despised in others but inspired great terror.  
  
"Then why don't you attend to it!? Why are you attacking me? My family? I was never a Death-Eater." Draco said obviously terrified but too worn out to argue. It was somewhat pathetic given the way he had been such an obnoxious bully before the second rise of the Death-Eaters.  
  
"Oh but you sympathized with them enough." Tempest's eyes focused "That was enough to teach me to hate."  
  
***  
  
New Avalon Collegium Library  
January 3rd, 1999  
  
Ron Wealsey stared at the magically hidden island's stacks of books that had become the refuge for young adults and children who were being evacuated from Voldemort's vengeance. Ron had due to his injuries been asked to serve as watch for the infant wizards and witches who showed signs of magical potential. It was not unheard of that Voldermort might attack the defenseless in hopes of massacring potential rivals or taking them away to serve as bargaining chips with their parents.  
  
'I know why they really sent me here however.' Ron said moving his levitating chair, the magic the Dark Lord had weaved on his legs prevented him from perhaps ever walking again and it was no secret that Dumbledore considered Ron too unstable to continue being part of the fight against the Death Eaters. Ron had pushed away his family, Harry, and even Hermione in his time as well. They couldn't understand what he was feeling. To know that that he responsible for his father's death and had failed to avenge it.  
  
Ron opened one of the books the librarian had set down for him to read while the children practiced and blinked as he looked at the blank book's insides.  
  
'Great another magical diary.' Ron nearly threw the thing in the fireplace before he noticed it starting to write of it's own accord, a magic very different from most diaries.  
  
'I KNOW WHAT YOU NEED.' were the letters.  
  
"What do I need?" Ron said writing the word's inside, remembering Ginny's betrayal only half and the lesson of trusting strange books.  
  
'POWER it.' responded.  
  
"And you can give it to me?" Ron said sighing, writing it in.  
  
'TURN THE PAGE.'  
  
The book replied.  
  
Ron did as he was told and blinked seeing a complicated ritual called described as he blinked and saw an image of himself engraved in the book, holding the book over his legs as they glowed in the engraving.  
  
'SAY THE WORDS. YOU WON'T NEED A WAND.'  
  
The book continued writing at the bottom below the page.  
  
Ron without hesitation cast the complicated enchantment as pain like nothing save the Cruciatus curse itself filled him for a brief moment as he realized all the feeling had come back into his legs and they were as athletic and strong as they were before.   
  
'DO YOU WANT REVENGE?'  
  
"Yes." Ron wrote shocked and with a look of exaltation on his face.  
  
'ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE?'  
  
That was something entirely different than the gift he had just been given. There were definite connotations to such a word. Ron had grown up his entire life knowing there were dark forces that just lied in wait just to trap foolish wizards who dreamt of power or wealth or pleasure beyond their station.  
  
"Yes." He wrote before blinking and putting his quill down.  
  
'THEN ALLOW ME TO TEACH YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.' the book wrote as Ron continued to read.  
  
***  
  
"You don't have to do this Wealsey." Draco said lifting his wand for a moment before dropping it on the ground. Not a year ago it would have been ridiculous to him to consider one of the poor Ministry family his superior in magic but with what he had witnessed in his lifetime there was no doubt that he was living by the Dark Lord Tempest's patience alone.  
  
"Oh but on the contrary Draco. I do. IMPERIO! KNEEL!" the man who was once Ron Wealsey forced Draco Malfoy to the ground.  
  
Narcissa Malfoy ran forward and drew her own wand before Lord Tempest causally pointed it at her and said "CRUCIO!" and she fell to her knees in pain. Tempus's wizards grabbed then her wand and held her arms, holding her back.  
  
***  
  
Malfoy Manor Estate  
March 11, 2000  
  
Ron Wealsey had disliked Lucius Malfoy his entire life and standing before him in the library he began to wonder why he had ever been afraid of the pompous overfed pig whose magic was only short of a very poor student.   
  
"KINETICS! FURNITURE!" Lucius said waving his wand around the room wildly as all of his drawing room's chairs, paintings, and even the sofa sailed at Ron Wealsey.  
  
Lucius Malfoy had obviously been in the midst of packing when the newly formed order of Wotan's Eye had attacked. This time there would be no 'not guilty verdict by reason of magical control', Voldemort had killed too many people and the Malfoy name too well associated with the Death Eaters for it ever to allow him to escape. Still the monster's friends in the ministry had tipped him off before hand and before the Aurors would arrive to bring him in he would be long gone to some other country, he had already sent his family ahead.  
  
"DISINTEGRATE." The word was simple as Ron raised his wand and waved it causing the whole of it to burn into air molecules before Lucius Malfoy's eyes, the power Ron had come to possess in a short time was enough that he had no hope of victory.  
  
"Please…please…don't kill me. I could be useful. I have many magical artifacts, money hidden away, anything you like." The fat wizard fell on his knees and looked before Ron knocked his wand away with the disarmament spell. Voldemort he could not find but he could certainly take his vengeance on his minions.  
  
"No deals Malfoy. You die."  
  
***  
  
Draco Malfoy looked up to the skull mask, which had been carved from his father's head. Polished to shimmering ivory perfection, he saw his reflection inside it as Ron's eyes blinked very slowly at him. For a moment those eyes softened as if he was looking at Malfoy not with determination to kill him but the memory of the annoyance he had been, cruel but harmless.  
  
"AVADA KREVADA!" Lord Tempest shouted as the castle hall filled with green light.  
  
When it cleared there was solely the corpse of Draco Malfoy lied on the ground, his mouth open and staring into the tops of the castle hall while silence reigned but for Narcissa's sobbing.  
  
"Take care of her Brutus. Burn the Castle down to the foundations that it was built on. I want no trace of the Malfoy legacy to survive to haunt this millennium." Lord Tempest said, turning to exit out the shattered doorway towards his next target.  
  
It was then his new owl Creed flew down onto his arm and brought around it's neck a message for the Dark Lord. Opening it, Ron Wealsey read it and gave a bitter smile.  
  
"Harry Potter has returned to Hogwarts. Now I must confront my past." 


End file.
